Colorado civil unions bill headed to Senate floor

DENVER — The Colorado state Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved SB-2, a bill to recognize same-sex civil unions. It passed 5-4 on a party-line vote with all Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no. The bill will be debated and voted on in the full Senate next week.

Brad Clark, Executive Director of One Colorado, a statewide coalition in support of LGBT rights, released this statement:

“Civil unions will allow all committed couples to share in the responsibilities and protections that most families take for granted.

“Our society is stronger when we promote personal responsibility and taking care of one another, and civil unions do just that.”

Furthermore, One Colorado said, the bill “will provide committed gay and lesbian couples with critical legal protections and responsibilities, such as the ability to take family leave to care for a partner, to make medical and end-of-life decisions for a partner, to live together in a nursing home, and to adopt children together.”

According to Public Policy Polling, 62 percent of Colorado voters support the bill, while 53% of Colorado voters say that same-sex marriage should be legal. Only 22 percent said that there should be no legal recognition whatsoever of gay couples.

In addition, “the divide on the issue of civil unions is generational, with voters under 30 supporting gay marriage by a 77-23 margin.”

Public Policy Polling concludes that this “should be a real warning sign to the GOP that continuing to tack right on this issue is going to significantly hurt its ability to appeal both to the next generation of voters and to swing voters who are somewhere between moderate and liberal on social issues.”

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Pat Steadman and Lucia Guzman, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 15.